1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a chord teaching device and method which assists the organist in learning and playing chords. One of the most difficult tasks for the beginning organist is learning the correct finger position for the various chord types such as major, minor and seventh and applying this proper finger position for the various alphabetic keys to obtain chords such as C major, D seventh and E.music-sharp. minor.
The scarcity of organ teachers has placed an even greater burden on the beginning organist to not only learn the various chords but to incorporate new and increasingly complicated chords into songs without personal instruction. It is desirable to enable the organist to teach himself while at the same time simulating the learning environment provided by the teacher. Thus a chord teaching device for the self taught organist should enable the learning organist to hear the sound of a chord to be learned, to see the keys which must be depressed to make the chord, and to create a situation of positive reinforcement if the organist properly plays the chord to be learned either individually or as part of a song.
Whie the present invention is described herein with reference to a particular embodiment, it should be understood that the invention is not limited thereto. The chord teaching system of the present invention may be employed in a variety of forms, as one skilled in the art will recognize in light of the present disclosure.
2. Prior Art
Chord teaching systems are known in the electronic organ industry. In addition, known teaching systems use visual displays associated with the keyboard and/or pedals. These systems frequently depend upon external prerecorded information which is supplied to the organ to activate the teaching sequence. Furthermore, known chord teaching systems provide means for the organist to store selected chords within a memory for subsequent playback but also require the organist to determine the timing sequency of playback among other things which makes chord programming complicated. In addition, the concept of using normalized chord patterns to reduce logic circuit requirements and the scanning of keyboard input lines to determine the root or alphabetic note of a chord being played is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,144,788 which issued on Mar. 20, 1979 to Bione et al and U.S. Pat. No. 4,300,430 which issued on Nov. 17, 1981 to Bione et al both of which are assigned to the assignee of the present invention.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a chord teaching system to enable the organist to teach himself the proper key position for various musical chords.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a chord teaching system which simulates the positive reinforcement of an actual teacher.
It is still another object of the present invention to enable the learning organist to select the type of musical chord to be learned and the alphabetic key of the selected chord type.
It is a further object of the present invention to permit the learning organist to select the chord to be learned and then progress at his own rate by repeating the learning sequence with the same chord or by going on to learn different or more complicated chords.
It is yet another object of the present invention to enable the learning organist to both hear the chord to be learned and see at least the key to be depressed in order to play the root note.
It is another object of the present invention to enable the beginning organist to select a type of musical chord and to depress a single key representing the alphabetic or root note of the chord and hear the chord to be learned.
It is another object of the present invention to illustrate the correct pedal key which accompanies the chord selected by the beginning organist.
It is another object of the present invention to enable the beginning organist to select a type of musical chord and to depress a single key representing the alphabetic or root note of the chord and see the keys which should be depressed in order to form the chord.
It is another object of the present invention to enable the learning organist to test his/her mastery of the correct key position of various chords by selecting a chord to be tested without demonstrating knowledge of the correct key position of the chord, depressing a plurality of keys corresponding to the key position which the learning organist believes corresponds to the key position of the selected chord, indicating that the response was correct or if incorrect indicating to the learning organist the correct key position.
It is another object of the present invention to enable the beginning organist to program a number of selected chords into the chord teaching system in a desired sequence, for example, the order in which the chords appear in a song and then attempt to play the song with the correct finger position for each stored chord which is illustrated to the learning organist in the desired sequence and providing that each illustrated chord be properly played before the next chord in the stored sequence is illustrated.
It is a further object of the present invention to enable the learning organist to program selected chords into the chord teaching system in a desired sequence, for example, the order in which the chords appear in a song and have the chords automatically played back in the desired sequence and have the finger position of each played chord illustrated for the learning organist all under the timing control of the rhythm unit in the organ.
Other objects of the present invention will be apparent from the following summary and detailed description.